On Gehenna of the Christian Sense
by Java Trinomial
Summary: Hell, and hate, and Rights vs. Right. Reviews are always appreciated...okay, maybe not always...
1. Inferno of the Emotions

Hell.  
What's so special about Hell?  
  
Hell's where people are tormented eternally  
That's the basic definition of it.  
Hmm.  
  
To some people,   
Hell's where the bad people go.  
To others,  
it's where the unbelievers go.  
And I look at it,   
at the sheer idea of it,  
a place where people are tortured  
forever  
and I have to stop  
in my tracks  
and ask,  
"Why?"  
  
To hurt someone,  
forever and ever,  
never giving them a chance  
to ask forgiveness  
just torment unto insanity and beyond.  
  
How can such pain be loved?  
How can a loving God  
let his children be hurt so?  
  
I went through hell for six hours,  
or the closest I've ever come  
to it.  
  
I was bullied, shoved down  
mentally and emotionally raped  
by a person that claimed to love me  
but said the most hurtful things  
I had ever heard in my life.  
And I tried to love him too.  
My stepfather.  
  
Others have gone through hell too.  
Those in concentration camps,  
in prisons,  
in abusive relationships,  
each with a point that they believed,  
"I cannot be hurt any more than this."  
  
Some say you can escape this possibility,  
if you say the right things,  
and believe the right things.  
  
Some use Hell to threaten others.  
"Believe in me and me alone,  
or you're toast."  
  
(If one converts through fear and violence,  
then says that's not a nice thing,   
even while still doing it,  
is that hypocrisy?)  
  
And I sit down to think.  
  
...  
  
And all I can think  
is that no kind of love,  
allows someone to hurt  
that much for forever.  
  
Some say,  
that hell is the deterrent,  
the reason people should behave in this life.  
  
And yet, then they say  
that if you accept Jesus  
you're going straight to Heaven  
regardless.  
  
So murder someone, be a serial killer  
then accept Jesus  
and you'll be in Heaven  
And the Jewish and Muslim Mother Theresa's  
go to hell.  
  
Jews believe in the Christian God.  
So do Muslims.  
So they go to hell?  
  
It's mean-spirited  
to judge people so  
to say, or imply,  
that one is going to hell.  
Worse, it directly contradicts the Bible.  
Doesn't Jesus say,  
"Judge not, lest ye be judged"?  
Let God do the judging,  
and don't presume to speak for him?  
Work kindness and love,  
convert people through that,  
and I will respect you fully.  
  
But if it is in your religion  
to believe I am going to hell  
and if it is also in your religion  
to remind me of this  
countless times...  
You have the right to say it.  
  
And I will try to respect you,  
although it's a lot easier  
to respect one  
who fully respects you and your decisions.  
  
~~~~~  
  
A side authoress's note, for those who are still reading the jabber I put up.  
  
I fully planned to give this site up after "wakaru" until I read a review by berenwasteland on conversion. I can't quote it, but it quoted me...it mentioned how the current "conversion" methods were failing hopelessly and used me as his prime example, quoting something I said in anger and despair.  
  
And, well, I felt ashamed...   
  
So I came back, and I thought a lot. And I started something new. Not to convert people to Atheism, as I tried to, but to Kindness and Love.  
  
I have had one person who has listened to me and chosen this way. I have seen no one convert to the Christianity as the hell-raisers preach it.  
  
This is not a judgement on religion - it is a judgement on methods. Take it as you will. =)  
  
  
Secondly, if you're going to review this, I will accept two topics. One, on the technical merits. Two, on the moral and theological ideas of it. Please review coherently, and with punctuation. Anyone from the Westboro Baptist Church (those of the GodHatesF@%$.com) will be skewered on my voodoo dollie. Anyone who uses obscenity in their review will be mocked with extreme prejudice. I'm nice, but not yet THAT nice. That's all I ask, mkay?  
  
Sekai wo kaeru! 


	2. Purgatory of the Mind

Perhaps...  
  
Maybe Hell is being born again, reincarnated again,  
until you are a good person.  
  
Maybe Hell is really just Purgatory.  
  
Maybe Hell is being cut off frm God, but living in a decent place.  
  
Maybe Hell is non-existance...  
  
Maybe Heaven is non-existance...  
  
Maybe the Afterlife isn't a life after all...  
  
Maybe people should just shut up about sending non-believers to hell because it's a cruel, manipulative, cold-hearted, and distinctly non-Golden-Rule thing to do.  
  
Maybe Hell is just too vicious to exist.  
  
...And yet,  
my cynical side says,  
"Why not?"  
"You though the World was too nice  
for your Pain to exist.  
Death, suffering, murder, injustice,  
they all reign in life.  
Why don't they reign in Afterlife too?"  
  
Jizu frightens me sometimes  
when she says this.  
  
Because that would mean  
the World is a bad place  
after all,  
wicked and tarnished,  
and that's the way all existance is.  
God is cruel and jealous,  
for as I said,  
I cannot even picture  
a loving god who would do that.  
it would mean  
that Love, Mercy and Forgiveness are pipe dreams.  
Love, Mercy and Forgiveness are lies.  
  
...  
  
Maybe Hell is a lie.  
maybe Heaven is too...  
  
Maybe they both exist.  
Maybe not.  
  
Maybe there is a greater good in life.  
Maybe it's all bullshit.  
  
Maybe I think too much...  
  
~~~~~  
  
You have the right to believe in whatever you want.  
Sometimes, it is not right to do so.  
  
You have the right to hate.  
But it is never,  
ever,  
EVER,  
right to hate.  
  
Yoda had a serious point.  
  
Yet, what about hating bad things?  
Like poverty and pain?  
Like death and destruction?  
Surely, it must be okay to hate them...  
  
Yet, how easy can it be...  
to go from hate of a thing,  
to hate of a person.  
  
To believe that a thing is wrong,  
and to work against it with all your might,  
yet, isn't that hate?  
can't that be hate so easily?  
  
I want to erase the word hate.  
Take a knife to every word,  
delete, scrub out, kill  
destroy them all.  
But I know,  
if I did that,  
it would be violating another's rights.  
  
They have the right to say it.  
First Amendment.  
  
But that doesn't mean  
it's right to do it.  
  
How do I decide whether it's right to do?  
Well, would I want someone to do it to me?  
If I wouldn't  
and most people wouldn't  
it goes against the Golden Rule,  
and therefore, it isn't right.  
  
That's only my interpretation, of course.  
  
...  
  
Whenever I hear the word "hate"  
I want to cry.  
And so do so many others.  
  
Heaven would be a place  
without hate. 


End file.
